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Class Concepts (Exam 3)
Links *Home page *Class Concepts (Exam 3) *Media Examples (Exam 3) *Class Information *Tips on being a better student Lecture Notes 11/1/11-Advertising Pervasive 6% of the world's population lives in the United States, but we have half of the world's ad expenditure. we are exposed to 300-1,500 ads per day, which equates to 20 ads per waking hour. about 60% of a newspaper is filled with advertisements. a news hole is the amount of time or space dedicated to actually news, not ads, in a medium. the news hole has remained the same over time, but the newspapers are getting longer and bigger because of more and more ads, not necessarily less news. product placement in movies started with ET (reeses peices), and now as many as 46 different products per movie. in TV, 17 minutes per hour and 40 ads per hour, product placement advertising on the internet has changed over time to become more effective and less obnoxious. a buzz agent is someone who is virally popular and is paid to pass favorable ideas, images, and messages about products through social networks. also known as an ad ambassador. Growth over time, the spending on ads seems to be endlessly increasing. people are generally favorable of advertising. some people will buy advertised brands even thought they are more expensive. brand names seep into our language use. we use brand-names as actual words, like xerox, google, band-aid, and kleenex. these are brand names but are often used as the name for all brands of that product, or sometimes in our language turned into a verb. Criticism 1. We buy things we do not need in order to gain social acceptance and define identity. We construct our own identities beased on what brands we wear and what cars we drive. belonging through material consumption. Maslow (a social psychologist) laid out a heirarchy of needs in a model, that shows areas that advertisers poke at in order to make us respond, because they target our most basic needs. 2. We become overly materialistic because we consume TOO much, we buy and buy and buy. 6% of the world's population uses 30% of the world's resources. 80% of people say we consume too much. 3. Deceptive claims/puffery there are false, or empty, claims being made in advertising. empty claims can not be disproved. another technique is superiority claims in comparison to other products, saying that one version or one brand is better than another. 4. Sex and Stereotypes the media industry uses sex to sell just about anything. the female body is used in provocative ways in service of selling products that are completely unrelated to sex. Women are being objectified in the process. 5. Play on our fears ads make appeals about things we should fear in order to be effective. make us feel like we are inadequate or lacking, on a more subtle level. advertisements claim that by consumption of material goods, we will somehow become more complete and better people. When all these criticisms are looked at, we can see that some ads also provide effective campaigns for important social causes. Ads can raise public awareness. in this way, ad campaigns can be socially responsible. it is very easy to criticise the advertising agency but it's important to see how creative and important the advertising can be. Lecture Notes 11/3/11- MEDIA SEX (finally leaving Potter behind.) Concerns about sex in media are in two different areas: behavioral and symbolic, and both concern pornography and non-pornographic material. In the US, statistically people are more paranoid about sexual material than about violent material. Behavioral Concerns somehow by seeing sex depicted whether it be sexual innuendo in speech or fully pornographic, people become morally corrupt, irresponsible, and promiscuous. sex in media influences our personal satisfaction-seeing people have sex in media makes us dissatisfied with our own lives. 67% of primetime shows have talk about sex or sexual behavior. 5 instances per hour When sex is talked about or shown in media content, it is not depicted in a responsible way. 2001-2010 15% of shows presented safe-sex messages. Zillman and Bryant in the early 1980's (from IU) researched behavioral issues. They concluded that (1) people who are exposed to sexually explicit mediated material (porn) overestimate the frequency of unusual sexual practice (e.g. sadomasochism and bestiality) compared to groups who saw nonsexual films. (2) people who are exposed to porn are less satisfied with the affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance of their real-life partners. (3) people who watch porn have lower evaluation of marriage and monogamy, less desire to have children, and greater acceptance of male dominance and female submission. The medium used may actually make a difference: men are more aroused than women by visual depictions of sex. Women are more aroused than men by verbal/print depictions of sex. both genders are aroused by both verbal descriptions and visuals, but each gender has different levels of response than the other. men and women show increases in masturbation, orgasm, sex fantasies, etc from both verbal and visual sexual content. Symbolic Concerns specifically with gender objectification. typically porn and other sexual content is demeaning toward women in some way. : Objectification :: definition: :: to make less human; an object, a thing. :: way of making something inferior. :: to assign different roles to different gender groups. :: maintain gender inequity. ::: exemplified: ::: women who are featured in erotica are not "average" women. the men who appear in sexually explicit material seem less exceptional. porn objectifies the exception. women with physical attributes that are not very common are featured. ::: women are presented as objects of male sexual pleasure, submissive, in a state of sexual arousal. men, on the other hand, are presented as accidentally naked, with no expression of sexual arousal in their faces. ::: femme fatale movie genre depicts women very agressively ::: we seem to moralize female sexuality more: there are women who are very attractive and submissive, but on the other hand there are those that are very attractive and agressive. ::: there is a stigma that women should only be sexualized in porn, but not in general media. Moralizing Sex Dates back to times of hunting/gathering societies: there was no such thing as coupling for life, or for any extended period. It was only known who the mother of a child was; the father was typically unknown. Men went out and hunted for food, and women exchanges sex for food. Fathers only became concerned with parenting and monogamy when humans began to grow food. Anthropologists claim that men were in need of people to tend the land and the gardens, so they designated their own children to the jobs. The monogamy was important so that the men knew the children were theirs to work on their agriculture. (There was nothing moral about it; it was purely pragmatic.) Response to Behavioral and Symbolic Concerns Argument/Counter to Objectification Concern: Mediated erotica is a part of human societies since the beginning of recorded history. No new technology is going to change the course that it's been on. Erotica has been around forever and will be around forever. The concerns are mediocre and pointless. People should stop worrying about it. : Men in particular have been creating images of the female form; female body worship since earliest artifacts. Men in particular create and consume visual representations of sex. This exemplifies differences in the "wiring" and socialization between genders. : "Wiring" differences: Gender and reproductive cues : Women are selective and cued on emotional and resource commitment. It is a massive investment to carry a child and be very centrally responsible for the life of that child. Auditory Stimuli that suggest intimacy and interpersonal bonding/emotion : Men are less selective, and cued visually. Parental investment is very different, and reproduction is nearly infinite as compared to women. The best predictor of a female's sexual atttactiveness to a male is hip-to-waist ratio. (cross-culturally) Visual Stimuli. The Point Visual erotical is historically persistent. There is nothing new. Perhaps not entirely an issue of objectification. Perhaps instead an outcome of biology. Adoption of New Media New media mediums are adopted because of consumption of porography. Early movies, newspapers, comic strips, VCR, internet and ipod. Violence The Factoids: ''' '''TV There is a lot of physical violence on television. 57-80% of all entertainment programs on tv feature some sort of violence. 4-7 acts per hour. Verbal violence is growing. As many as 22 instances per hour on prime-time tv. Growing becaise it is less visible and more tolerated. FILM 1998- top grossing movies contain the most violence. People learn lessons and aquire certain examples for behavior that becomes part of world views and lives. Violence is portrayed as harmless, necessary, and heroic. Major Question: what is media violence? How can it be defined? There is a lot to be considered in deciding what is violent in media and what is not, all specific to personal opinion. OPINIONS Polls show that there is a growing concern about media violence and its possible effects. People are extremely worried about what media violence is doing to other people (not themselves), displaying the third-person effect. The Effects: CONCERNS People believe that if something is seen in media, it will be reenacted in real life. Therefore, media violence is concerned to create violence in the real world. Particularly, people are worried about young children, criminals, and young boys playing computer and video games. These are known as "at-risk" groups. Recent studies have proven that violent media is consumed more among well-behaved, academically and socially successful young boys than it is consumed among young boys with violent criminal records. POTTER'S LIST (needs to be covered more specifically: pgs 316-319) Immediate effects can be observed while or right after exposure, while long term effects are able to be observed after multiple exposures. Both immediate and long term effects are defined in 6 different types: 1. Behavioral 2. Physiological 3. Emotional 4. Cognitive 5. Attitudinal 6. Societal Immediate Behavioral: Immitation and disinhibition (threshold of what is appropriate is lowered.) Physiological: Flight/Flight responses (depictions make us respond like we would if the situation was real.) and excitation transfer. Cognitive: Learning lessons like how to defend self or approach violence. Long Term Behavioral: Training how to kill. Physiological: Narcoticizing (violence is like a drug and people crave the excitement from exposure.) Cognitive: Learning Norms (violence becomes part of what is learned about the world; it is incorporated in the world view.) Some Not-so-Mainstream Ideas: Violent portrayals are not all equal: to be concerned, informatively, about media violence is to be aware that all violent portrayals are different. Upsetting violence may actually be pro-social: sanitized violence, that which shows no consequences to the human body, is dehumanized because violence is not depicted with realism. There is little to no blood shown in these depictions and therefore it is believed to be less pro-social than violence that is gruesome abd gory, because that is more like what violence is in real-life. Upsetting violence is more pro-social because it displays what the consequences of violent actions are likely to be in reality. News and Sports concern: Why are people so concerned with the violence portrayed in tv and film entertainment, but not so much about the violence in News and Sports? Showing violence in news can do social good: visual documentations of what violence looks like (war, genocide, starvation) makes the public aware and want to get involved in order to stop whatever might be going on. Why, if this effect is occuring due to News, can it not be delivered jut as well, if not better, by fictional sources. Humans are wired for violence: Media artifacts from every time period show that human beings have a certain fascination and need for violent outlets. We get to experience the violence required of us from nature through our media sources. Crime Common Criticisms: excessive coverage, unfair coverage, sensational infotainment, irrelevant, the scary world of television. EXCESSIVE COVERAGE Homocide in the US decreased by 27% from 1993 to 2005. During the same time period, crime reported in the news increased by 721% !! Crime makes up between 30-45% of newscasts and newspapers. The argument is that even at 30%, there is too much crime being reported and that news should focus on other things too, such as politics, health, economy, consumer issues, and education. Crime is by far the most stable and prominent news topic. UNFAIR COVERAGE (GENDER) Women victims of crime are over reported. Women are reported as victims 55% in news. The FBI reports that only 18% of victims of crime are actually women. In news, victims that are females are mostly females who work. This reinforces a stereotype or two about women. Of working women victims, 93% are victmized on their way to work or while at work, and only 13% of working men victims are victimized on their way to or at work. Patriarchal Chivalry: Women criminals are treated differently in the news than men criminals. If women commit crimes that are within their nurturing nature or gender expectation, the coverage of the crime is lighter and the actual sentencing is gentler (than if a man were to commit the same crime.) The flip side is true as well: women are treated more harshly for committing crimes that are outside of their gender expectations (like harming her own child) than a man would be for committing the same crime. (RACE) African Americans are portrayed as criminals in the news 53% of the time, and only make up 22% of the prison population in reality. Bob Entman's study of modern racism after the analysis of the content of crime stories in media in the Chicago area suggests that the following statistics prove that modern racism may not be intentional, but still exists. Comparing African Americans versus Caucasians: : Without names: 52% AA, 35% C (names humanize people) : Not in motion: 55% AA, 34% C (caucasians seem more lifelike) : In prison suits: 55% AA, 31% C (African Americans seem more criminal) : Physically restrained: 82% AA, 37% C (African Americans seem out of control) SENSATIONAL INFOTAINMENT Body bag journalism (coverage of a crime story where the horrific gruesome material is the only material used.) If it bleeds, it leads. Big headlines, high drama. IRRELEVANT the concern is that the large portion of the news whole that is spent covering crime fails to make the public more informed and responsible, like news is supposed to. This concern suggests that crime is trivial. Some people respond saying that the elites who make claims that the crime is irrelevant do not live among the criminal population and cannot see how helpful the news coverage of crime actually may be. THE SCARY WORLD OF TELEVISION The extensive amount of crime stories on television are causing a cultivation effect, where world views are changed based on the media we consume. For example, most people would believe that more of the US population is involved in law enforcement that what is true (only 1%), as well as believing that the chances a person has of being a victim of a violent crime is much higher than the real chance (less than 1%). TV representations of law enforcement as well as crime are a lot higher than they exist in reality. The theory is that there is a direct correlation between the time spent in media and the world view of crime/law enforcement. Alternative Views on Crime News: ' : Crime is a part of American History: America still has one of the highest crime rates of all countries. We have one of the top 5 highest crime rates, and even a higher position within just the developed world. The country was built on crime and violence. : Cirime coverage is not a contemporary thing: crime has been cultivating in news forever. : Crime is functional to society: Crime stories comprise 38-42% of news content and there is at least one crime in 64% of prime-time fictional programs. Nothing is this pervasive without a reason, right? Over time, as newspaper publications increased, the number of public executions decreased. News taught people what was immoral instead of public executions. Emile Durkheim says that crime is a normal part of healthy societies. Social functionalism of crime has nothing to do with what is good or bad, but is about how the "machine" of society works, although sometimes in cruel ways. Crime serves society. We need something to call "crime." If today, we solved every single crime, tomorrow, we would call things crime that were considered perfectly normal today. :'Functions of crime to society : Construct morality: 'Morality is "the most strictly necessary daily bread without which societies cannot exist." -Emile Durkheim. We have the opportunity to decide what is acceptable/moral and what is unacceptable/immoral. Society cannot function without a constructed moral code in common. Crime reporting is a clear way to draw the line between what is good/bad; acceptable/unacceptable. As news media becaome more used and integrated, less executions were public. : '''Social Solidarity: '"Social Solidarity that results from crime is a burning flame that consumes the differences of individual interest." -George Herbert Mead. Further advancing social solidarity is very important to the function of society. it makes a society (for the most part) agree on something. we are able to forget about personal differences and become collectively bonded; social glue. Society is able to unify agains the criminal, which is why we use the horrendous news footage and stories. There are differences across cultures as far was what is acceptable, but there is the same behavior as far as social fragmentation being overcome with agreement on crime. : 'Social Control: '"Punishment of crime awakens in law abiding members of a society the inhibitions which make rebellion impossible to them." -George Herbert Mead. You will be an outcast if you commit actions that have been defined as criminal in your own society. The coverage of crime stories scares other citizens into submission. There is over-documentation of what happens to criminals, like the websites where you can see what they had for the last meal or said in their last moments. This meticulous record-keeping shows us that even real people who commit crimes will be punished. Sports Guest Lecture 11/22/11 '''Evolutionary Psychology: we think like we think because of evolution. our ancestors thought things that gave them advantages over others in their time and we are a product of that. we are living in a world we were not made for. if we accept that evolution had effects on the human body, we must agree that it had effects on the human mind. Media Equation: we treat media like they are people, this happens across demographics. our interaction with media is often automatic. following the footsteps made by social scientists, if we know how people will respond to people, we know hoe people will respond to media. Findings: : --> Social etiquette norms :: we are polite to computers :: we establish personal relationships with media :: humans are "dupes" for flattery : --> Personality :: people are attracted to computers with similar personalities to themselves. :: people are attracted to computers that agree with them. : --> Emotions :: Our emotional reaction is the same whether we are reacting to an event in reality or in mediated reality. Stereotypes: are beliefs or expectations about qualities and characteristics of a specific social group. an automatic response is unconscious and rushed. a controlled response is one that is not rushed, and when cognitive resources applied are high. a lot of the information we get about "out groups" comes from the media. viewers unconsciously pick up on subtle messages and form stereotypes and beliefs based on the messages. real-world experience usually trumps media information. MEDIATED SPORTS white athletes are desribed being as moral, prepared, coachable, determined, disciplined, and strategic while black athletes are desribed as being tall, strong, quick, fast, big, and agile. do these generalizations lead to stereotypes? how can that be tested? there is something called an Implicit Association Test, where people are asked to quickly choose between two images based on a word they are given. these tests have proven the stereotypes between black and white athletes to be very present. White athletes are thought to be more trained, acquired talents while black athletes are thought to have a natural born talent. People who watch a lot of sports have these associations. How to address this? Be aware, undo stereotypes. :: Games (Guest Lecture - Nic) :Why look at games? - very popular (17hrs/week 8th grade males) - make a lot of money (11.8 billion dollars spent on games in 2008) :-modern warfare 2 (video game) made the same amount of money in 5 days that Dark Knight made during it's entire box office run. - 67% of homes have game console - average age of gamer - 34 - 40% of women play games '-Why people play?' - arousing - entertaining - for the challenge - for the competition - as a diversion - for the fantasy - FOR THE SOCIAL ASPECT (growing reason) What is there to study? - games are VIOLENT! (only 1/3 of ALL video games overall are non-violent) - games made for teens and adults (90% violent) - All games (64% are violent) - Kids like video games so studies have to be done about their effects how are video games different from TV? - Games are interactive (lean forward vs. lean back medium) - YOU make decisions - you COMMIT to violence - leads to disinhibition (pulling trigger becomes the solution to the problem) and desensitization (violent acts stop bothering users like they may have at some point.) - getting lost in game environment - leads to frustration - leads to aggression - adverse effects increase when you like the perpetrator; you endorse violence because it is for your cause. - YOU are the perpetrator in violent video games - adverse effects decrease when you relate to the target; violence seems bad when you can FEEL for victim. - YOU are also the target - Whether you are the target or the perpetrator in a game is dependent on your skill level. - 2/3 of the time, if you are skilled, you are the perpetrator - 2/3 of the time, if you are not skilled, you are the target But games aren't realistic, right?……………… - example: "half-life" video game - doesn't look like real life - example "battlefield 3" newer video game - looks EXTREMELY realistic Why games may never be REALISTIC - Gamification (meters and things on screen) - interactive…goal oriented (not thinking as much about the plot or violence) - Violence is typically highly exaggerated Will it ever be real enough? ''' - emotional response vs. anthropomorphism - Uncanny valley shows that the amount of response people have to graphics drops suddenly when people are disturbed by just how realistic something is. there is talk that technology will someday allow us to pass the uncanny valley and acheive complete emotional response to mediated content that is very realistic. '''User generated content - This stuff is everywhere! - Game Mods - in-game build material - user generated content is buildable in the game - Example - making an avatar in a game (or the "garry's mod" of halflife where the game is completely different due to changes he made with the bits of creators' tools. garry had no formal education on game tech.) Mods - Sex '-'''1/4 of all google searches include porn - half-life 2 - powerful female lead - mod to make her naked the entire game - Oblivion - lots of women in the game - mod to make them all topless. - grand-theft auto - mod that allowed users to create sex scenes in the game. since the mod was created with content that was already on the disc, but had been unlocked by a user, the manufacturer had to recall all games and remove modification availability. '''Policy implications' - games have negative effects in context - ESRB - entertainment software rating board (similar to the board that regulates films) - E (Everyone), T (Teen), M (Mature) '- how is the policy different between film and games'? - kids can't buy high rated games just like kids can't see R rated movies, but games are more reactive to public response - if content is on game and mod-ed to be featured, game can be re-rated - Rockstar had to reprint all GTA games in order to have reputable sellers continue to sell the game - What about Unrated versions of DVDs - can be sold anywhere?!? So why are games different? - ESRB wants to be able to regulate their own industry - listens to public more than the people rating movies - moral panic associated with video games (parents don't understand but they worry about kids so they overcompensate) comics, upon first penetrating the market, caused moral panic. - kids like games - parents don't understand games - parents assume worst case scenario - do stupid things to protect kids (make game ratings change and have games pulled off shelves) - Australia has the strictest rules on game ratings - games not appropriate for children are BANNED from the country Is there any hope for games? - games are becoming more cooperative - play with friends - reduces bad effects - pay attention to friends, not violence - new groups playing games - games starting to be viewed more as 'art' - games are not scary and evil Images 12/1/11 and on (very important topics) Why are visuals important? : biological and cognitive primacy : gutenberg legacy (explained below) : visual automaticity : subtle language Eye placement in images : bunny vs owl (prey vs predator) : where eyes are carried is very important to whether a creature is predator or prey : we are physiologically designed to deal with vision as primal. History of Life : 4,600 million years ago: Earth : 3,900 million years ago: Life : 544 million years ago: 3 species of animal : 538 million years ago: 38 species of animal (there is an extreme increase in biodiversity within such a "short" period of time) : life changed dramatically with sight: food & sex furthered with sight, beginning the explosion in biodiversity. : the period of time when this expansion occured is referred to as the Cambrian Period. History of Writing : there is a very strong history of images in the history of writing. drawing came before writing. : ideograph: pictograph but abstracted, lost resemblance to pictures and became letters. : in Egyptian writing history, the pictograph was the initial sound : writing has evolved a lot, Visual Primacy: Brain Specialization : 50% of neural pathways are for visual processing : the other 50% of neural pathways are shared to process information gained through the other 4 senses. : visuals are processed more automatically than verbal info. : dominates in visual/verbal non-redundancy : there is a specialized brain center for images but not for word processing. : 47 milliseconds (1/20th of a second) to make sense of an image, but 500 milliseconds to recognize and make sense of a word. : 50% of neocortex is involved in visual processing : audiovisual comprehension is nearly equal across all education groups. The Gutenberg Legacy: : -gutenberg says text is more important than images : says that images are for less-worthy, less-educated people in society. : very high value on words in society for information Automatic Processing : images are processed more automatically than words : visual "tune-out" (automaticity) : although we tune out, we still acquire knowledge Visual Tune-Out (Automaticity) : boosts survival among explosion of media messages : we are able to focus attention on one subject : we are good at visual processing : How do we tune-out? we have knowledge structures that give us categories of thinking: :: schema processing (we realize patterns and make sense using grouping and generalization by using context.) :: stereotypes : Why is tuning out bad? :: we become unknowingly spcialized (like the racism we unintentionally carry) :: stereotyping (yes, they are good and bad.) 'Drawing comparisons and contrasts between words and images' : Indexical quality: : we trust images on an austounding level, while we often doubt what we hear or read. : there is an authenticity about images; like what you see IS there. : images are not constructed as verbal representations are : images are believed to be/responded to as captured or extracted, not created. : BUT what you see is NOT always there! there is retinal fatigue, and images are seen differently based on context and closure. :: Context: :: clues surrounding object linked to learned knowledge or clues create optical illusions. :: visual perception is not an index of reality, but is a creative mental activity. :: we organize stimuli into patterns. :: what we see is due to past perceptions or comparisons :: Closure: :: we fill in or connect incomplete visual cues to create a meaningful pattern. :: Gestalt: German word for pattern; patterns rather than unique forms. Camera Angles: : High angle: looking down : Low angle: looking up : Eye level Camera Shot Length: : extreme close-up : close up : medium shot : long shot :: we construct paraproxemix/parasocial relations to people in media based on shot length. Images are not explicit : unlike words, there is a lack of explicitness in images. images make claims and draw generalizations but they are not precise. they make casual claims, comparisons and generalizations and leave the rest to personal interpretation. the bottom line is that perhaps visuals need specific consideration -there is a cognitive primacy, despite the Gutenberg legacy. -subtle meaning-making -content forms influences Last Day's Lecture : Review and more info 12/8/11 EXAMPLES OF SOME EFFECTS long-term COGNITIVE effect: : hypermnesia: people don't remember things/facts from a media exposure until far later when they are reminded of it. Things come together in the brain to form a knowledge structure during brain's down-time. long-term ATTITUDINAL effect: : sleeper effect: over time your attitude changes toward a certain media message because information and source become detached. : cultivation: when exposed to the same elements and "realities" of stories in media, the narratives become part of a person's world view. long-term EMOTIONAL effect: : desensitization: repeated exposure to the same kind of content over time is numbing. people won't have the same emotional responses. long-term BEHAVIORAL effect: : narcoticizing: people become addicted to a certain type of media, and seek out more of a source, a bigger dosage, after time. : disinhibition: emotion and opinion lowered because of repeated exposure; people more likely to act on this effect because it is BEHAVIORAL (this makes it different from desensitization) MEDIA LITERACY REVISITED: POTTER'S 10 TIPS #spend more mental effort #know your goals #awareness of use #practice your skills #broaden your knowledge base #reality-fantasy continuum #cross-channel comparison of sources #examine your opinions #change behavior #personal responsibility POTTER: HELPING OTHERS Restrictive mediation doesnt work well Using program ratings is not very useful because parents are clueless. Co-use of media is okay but a bit passive Active mediation is the right way because you can engage in a conversation during or after media exposure. PUBLIC EDUCATION & MEDIA LITERACY US lags behind other countries in education about media literacy, but US is one of the most media-saturated countries. there is no centralized decision-making system teachers are not trained properly to teach about media literacy. BEYOND POTTER don't wait for someone to teach you; be active the gap between socioeconomic groups is widening not just memory for facts navigate accedd savvy interpretation and use of media knowledge=power; it's alive media literacy is well beyond the printed world.